Fifth Circuit weighs whether a Louisiana handgun counts as interstate commerce

During a warrant execution in New Orleans, authorities discovered a handgun belonging to Curtis Squire, who has prior heroin-trafficking and burglary convictions. Although he was not charged with the shooting that prompted the search, the felon-in-possession statute made his possession a federal offense, and a Fifth Circuit panel affirmed his conviction in June, rejecting a Second Amendment defense. On July 20, the full circuit voted to rehear the matter, and Squire’s counsel abandoned the constitutional gun-rights claim in favor of a commerce-clause challenge, asserting that a gun residing in a Louisiana home is not interstate commerce.

Under current doctrine, any firearm that once crossed state lines satisfies the commerce element, effectively turning possession into a federal crime. The court must now decide whether the older Scarborough precedent survives the limits set by United States v. Lopez and United States v. Morrison. Judge Stephen Higginson dissented, warning that the majority may curtail Congress’s commerce power. Justice Clarence Thomas recently questioned the same statute’s reach, suggesting the issue could reach the Supreme Court.